Knowingo
The cover of The Eurasian Century

The Eurasian Century

Hal Brands, 2025

A sweeping history of Eurasian rivalry showing how geography constrains power while coalitions, technology, institutions, and human choices decide outcomes.

Get the app Read on the web

7 parts, about 24 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Reads the two world wars, the Cold War and today's rivalries as one recurring contest over Eurasia
  • Helps you see why continental autocracies and offshore democracies keep colliding, and what lets coalitions prevail
  • Treats classic geopolitics as a toolkit rather than a law, giving leadership, logistics and chance their due

Who it is for

  • Readers following the war in Ukraine and tension over Taiwan
  • Policy students weighing alliances and deterrence
  • History readers drawn to grand strategy across generations

What the summary covers

  1. The Map That Became a Warning3 min
  2. A Toolkit, Not a Law2 min
  3. The First Struggle and the Peace That Failed4 min
  4. Totalitarian Expansion Meets a Global Coalition4 min
  5. Containment's Qualified Golden Age4 min
  6. The Second Eurasian Century4 min
  7. Strategy Can Still Decide3 min

Recommended by

  • Robert Gates22nd US Secretary of Defense
    The Eurasian Century is a historical and strategic tour de force, broad-ranging and full of insights.
  • Paul KennedyAuthor of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
    There is so, so much to admire in this latest work by Hal Brands, from the easy lucidity of his prose to the boldness of his geopolitical arguments

About the author

  • Hal BrandsHenry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS
    • Born in 1983, he is an American scholar of US foreign policy and a columnist.
    • He holds a BA in history and political science from Stanford University and an MA, MPhil and PhD in history from Yale University.
    • He is also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and writes a weekly column for Bloomberg Opinion.
    • He served as special assistant to the US secretary of defense for strategic planning from 2015 to 2016.
    • He has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow.
    • He served as lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States.
    • He previously worked at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and the Institute for Defense Analyses.
    • In 2022 he wrote Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China together with Michael Beckley.

Read it alongside

  • Pushes backPrisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

    Hal Brands argues that geography shapes great power contests but strategy and human choices decide them; Tim Marshall argues that the landscape imprisons leaders, leaving them fewer choices than people think, which technology can only mitigate.

  • Goes deeperDestined for War

    Hal Brands reads China as a formidable long term challenger seeking primacy, while Graham Allison argues that its rise is unprecedented in speed and scale and that Xi's China wants predominance in Asia.

More books like this